Among the stated aims of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is to promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world.  And yet there is considerable debate over how successful it has been at accomplishing these objectives.  One view is that it manages a considerable degree of success in institutional environments where growth is extremely difficult to establish.  Another is that the IMF prioritises the interests of creditor nations at the expense of the poor in donor countries.  Recently, evidence has emerged that IMF programmes may even contribute to the eruption of violence in debtor nations as people protest against the austerity measures that structural adjustment programmes entail.

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